Album Review: DMB – Away From the World
If, like me, you used to be a huge Dave Matthews Band fan, and now you can take or leave them, I think you’ll like some of this new album, and the rest isn’t anything to write home about. Specifically, “Sweet” is one of the best DMB songs I’ve heard in years, if not ever. It’s a simple ballad about enduring trying times, and it’s something that Dave doesn’t do enough of.
So much of Dave’s music is huge, over-the-top songs that sometimes hit it out of the park, but lately, more often than not, feel stale, dated, and uninteresting. There was a time when having a saxophone player in an alternative rock been seemed so cool and different. It seemed like a weird fit, but the band made it work for them and that is one of the things that set them apart from everyone else. Now, however, the saxophone feels less cool and takes away more than it adds. When it’s just Dave on the acoustic guitar singing a nice ballad like “Sweet,” we see that there’s still something amazing there. It almost makes me wish he’d do another solo album so we could get Dave without all the backup drowning him out.
“Mercy,” is also a nice song, and actually a good example of how the band can but used in a way that doesn’t take away from the melody, the core of any song.
I think that overall this is their best effort in years, but still doesn’t touch the band’s earlier work. If you’re a DMB fan, I’d recommend you check this out, but keep your expectations in check.
Grade: B